Chapter 535 We Lost Her
That’s not possible, Sonia thought, still alarmed by Toby’s proclamation. If it’s true that Tina never truly loved him, then why was she so possessive of him?
As though reading her mind, Toby elaborated grimly, “She never truly loved me for me! After I blacked out from that particular car accident, I had Tom look into Tina, and we discovered a crucial piece of information.”
“What was it?” Sonia asked anxiously.
Tom interjected, “We found out that, at that point, she had known for quite a while that she wasn’t Titus’ biological daughter.”
“Yes. Tina discovered at the age of eighteen that she was not Titus’ biological daughter, which means there was a chance that he wouldn’t pass Triforce Enterprise to her. Even if he would, she knew her lack of skills in running a business would only jeopardize the company. There was a real likelihood that Triforce Enterprise could go bankrupt or be taken over by the shareholders, so in order for her to keep up her lavish lifestyle, she began to set eyes on all the successful men in the industry.”
Sonia’s jaw dropped when she heard Toby’s explanation. “No way.”
“It’s all true, Miss Reed. I looked into the men Tina had set her eyes on and found that they were bachelors from and heirs to some of the most elite families in the industry,” Tom began elaborating. “Our President Fuller happened to be the cream of the crop, but with the Gray Family’s standing back in the day, they were far from being in his league. Tina couldn’t find a way to even get close to President Fuller, until she discovered that he was pen pals with you, Miss Reed.”
“Pen pals…” Sonia’s face fell as she remembered something. So that’s what happened! Tina and I went to the same university, and she was even my roommate!
The scene of Tina catching her writing letters flashed in Sonia’s mind. They had been in their first year of university then, and she recalled Tina making fun of her for using such archaic methods to communicate with someone. Following this, Tina even rallied the other students from the course to join in the teasing.
But one day, Tina suddenly showed interest in Sonia’s pen pal and started asking questions about him. She had always been reproachful of Sonia’s letter-writing, but out of nowhere, she claimed to have plans on finding herself a pen pal as well.
Perhaps that had been the precise moment when Tina, by some way or another, discovered Toby and Sonia were pen pals. Then she had the idea to impersonate me so that she could finally get close to Toby!
At the thought of this, Sonia closed her eyes and bit out angrily, “It was my fault for not seeing through her schemes at the beginning.”
If she had known that John and Toby were the same person—that her pen pal and the man she had fallen so deeply in love with shared one identity—before Tina had, things would have turned out differently for her and Toby.
For one, Tina would never even be part of their narrative.
Presently, at the sight of Sonia’s trembling hands, Toby reached out and pulled her into his arms. She stumbled into his embrace, and as he held her, he caressed her hair gently while murmuring, “None of this is your fault; it’s mine. I should have told you my identity all those years ago.”
In actuality, he had considered telling her about his real identity back then, but at last, he decided against it after seeing how difficult the search for a compatible heart donor had been.
That moment of hesitation had ended up being the perfect window for Tina to come between him and Sonia.
The fault was not Sonia’s alone, but that didn’t matter. Having missed out on six years with her, Toby was determined to have every moment he could with her now.
Sonia, on the other hand, was surprised by his sudden gentle embrace, but for some reason, she couldn’t bring herself to push him away. There was something comforting about being in his arms like this, and she found herself calming down.
Going along with the flow, she quietly leaned her forehead against his shoulder and asked slowly, “So you’re saying that Tina only ever loved you for your money and status, but not for who you are? She went to such extreme lengths just so she could have you fund her lavish lifestyle?”
“That’s right,” Toby muttered hoarsely, dipping his head so he could breathe in the pleasant scent of her hair.
She lowered her gaze. “Actually, I thought her feelings for you were true to some extent. I could tell.”
Sonia had seen the jealousy in Tina’s eyes whenever they were in the same room; raw emotions like that couldn’t have been an act. Such jealousy and hostility toward me would have been uncalled for had Tina never truly loved Toby.
Toby’s brows furrowed. “I don’t care whether her feelings for me were real or not because I don’t want her in the slightest. The idea of being loved by her disgusts me!”
Hearing this inexplicably lifted Sonia’s spirits, and the beginnings of a smile began to curl on her lips as she said, “You know, maybe Tina tried to kill you because all that love she had for you has turned into pure hatred.”
“It doesn’t matter. She could try, but it’s not as if she’d succeed in murdering me anytime soon,” Toby pointed out darkly. An insidious look flashed in his eyes, but it disappeared just as quickly. He gently released Sonia from the cage of his arms and stared into her eyes. “Just remember that going forward, the grudges you thought were between you and Tina concern me as well, so don’t tell me not to intervene. Tina would still come after me even if I were to back out of this mess. You understand that, don’t you?”
Sonia parted her lips to say something in protest, but having been rendered speechless, she finally nodded. “I understand.”
Meanwhile, the doctor who had been tending to Toby’s sprained ankle—and who had become an involuntary third wheel to Toby and Sonia in the process—stood up and said, “Okay, President Fuller, you’re all set and ready to go. I’ve bandaged your ankle, so try to keep the area dry for at least twenty-four hours, though you can clean it with a damp towel. In the meantime, take care not to bump into anything.”
Toby hummed in response. “Alright. Now, can you please attend to her?”
“Very well,” the doctor agreed readily, then glanced over at Sonia. “Take a seat here, young lady.”
Sonia made a noise of acknowledgment and walked over to the other side of the couch, then rolled up her sleeve to reveal the abrasions on her arm so the doctor could tend to them.
Just then, Tom’s phone rang. “President Fuller, it’s a call from the bodyguards I sent to go after Tina earlier.”
Toby looked somber as he barked, “Well, answer it!”
Sonia turned to stare at Tom anxiously as well.
Under their intense scrutiny, Tom picked up the call and put it on speaker. “It’s me. Have you brought the target into custody?”
“Sorry, Mr. Brown, but we lost her,” one of the bodyguards on the other line reported trepidatiously.
Exasperation and disbelief colored Tom’s features as he snapped, “What? You lost her? You guys are two walking blocks of muscle with a flashy car, but neither of you managed to catch a girl in a beat-up ride?”
Putting it that way, it was hard for anyone to believe that Tina had outrun two security guards.
Toby, too, looked incensed, and the air around him crackled with angry energy. Sonia’s fists were clenched so tight that her nails were digging hard into her palms, and the incredulous expression on her face belied her thoughts. How did it end up this way?
She had initially thought that the bodyguards would take down Tina for sure, but in a shocking twist of events, the wretched woman actually managed to escape.
It was just as Sonia had said earlier: if they failed to bring Tina into custody and let her escape, then it would only be harder to catch her the next time. For as long as Tina stayed hidden in the shadows, she was a giant, ticking time bomb. There was no telling when she would pop up again and hurt them.
As things were, the worst-case scenario that Sonia had thought of had finally happened.
On the other end of the phone, the two bodyguards looked down in shame after getting told off by Tom.
“We’re sorry, Mr. Brown. We didn’t mean to let her escape; we thought the chase was going well, but just as we were about to corner her, two other cars skidded out of nowhere and cut us off.”
“Cut you off?” Sonia was astonished as she bit down on her lip. “Could they be Tina’s accomplices?”
“Obviously,” Toby agreed with a solemn nod.
“She actually has accomplices?” Sonia slammed her fist against the cushion and demanded, “Who would put their lives on the line to help her? Cynthia? Or maybe Julia and Titus?”
These were the only people Sonia could think of who might lend Tina a hand in all this. There was no way Melody could have helped Tina escape, not while she was already struggling in prison already. No, she couldn’t have arranged for anyone to help Tina get away from a manhunt.
That being said, Sonia thought there might be others who were aiding Tina in secret, but the possibility of that was low.
After all, the current Tina had already fallen from grace; she was no longer the same girl who had been coddled and supported by courtesies of her relationship with Toby. Her fans had deserted her, and her connections were too thinned out to offer her any real advantage.
